"Mostly Propaganda in Nature:" Kim Il Sung, the Juche Ideology, and ...

Mitchell Lerner
NKIDP Working Paper #3 December 2010
However, Kim's personal influence would not have been enough to lift Juche to its
dominant position if the ideology did not conform to the nation's heritage and already existing
beliefs. Even Kim, whose dominance within his country was beyond question––and perhaps
beyond comparison in the 20 th century––could not simply force onto the nation a defining
paradigm that did not resonate with the values that already existed. Juche's appeal therefore also
reflected the population's fierce sense of nationalism. "Kim used this psychology in his politics in
creating Juche," explained one North Korean official. "[Kim Il Sung] successfully uses the
nationalistic self-reliant consciousness of the Korean people." 31 In speeches and writings, Kim
repeatedly played to this nationalist sentiment. "As far as the Korean revolution is concerned," he
declared in 1969, "Koreans know about it better than anyone else. The masters of the Korean
revolution are the Korean people and our own strength is the decisive factor in its victory . . . In
order to ensure that the Korean revolution is a success, its masters, the Korean people
themselves, must use their brains, solve all problems that arise through their own efforts and
settle them in conformity with the interests of the Korean revolution." 32 Although nationalism
was of course not unique to Korea, the nation's long history of colonial occupation and resistance,
common language and shared ancestral culture, and critical Cold War position between three
superpowers made it particularly strong at the time of Kim's emergence. Juche's nationalistic
appeal was further strengthened by Korean history, since most of the nation had come to resent
decisions made by the nation's leadership under the Yi Dynasty to become essentially a vassal
state of China for hundreds of years. This sycophancy, labeled sadaejuui (or, "serving the great")
was widely regarded as a betrayal of the nation's interests and was a critical factor in the constant
31 Kim Jong-min, quoted in Martin, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, p. 772, footnote 88.
32 From "Answers to the Questions Raised by Abdel Hamid Ahmed Hamrouche, General Manager of Dar-El-Tahrir
for Printing and Publishing of the United Arab Republic," July 1, 1969, in Kim Il Sung, On Juche in our Revolution,
volume 2 (Weekly Guardian Associations 1975), p. 196.
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